Absolute Beginner's Guide to Digital Photography

CONTENTS vii

Degrees of Unsharp Masking. 193

An Exercise with Unsharp

Mask.................. 194

Taking Advantage of Blur.... 197

Removing Moiré Patterns and

Halftone Dots............ 197

Using Blur to Add an Artistic

Touch.................. 198

Noise Filters: Despeckle and

Dust & Scratches.......... 200

14 The Importance of Brightness/

Contrast................ 205

Introduction to Histograms... 207

Correcting Brightness and Contrast

for Dark Images........... 207

Correcting Brightness and Contrast

for Low-Contrast Images.... 209

Using Histograms to Diagnose

Exposure Problems....... 210

Setting Brightness and Contrast

with the Black Point and the

White Point.............. 212

Black-Point and White-Point

Setup.................. 214

Brightness and Contrast

Exercise................. 215

15 The Importance of Levels and

Curves................. 219

Using Levels to Fix Your

Images................. 220

Levels Dialog Box.......... 221

How Can Color Images Use Gray

Values?................. 222

Working with Histograms and

Levels.................. 222

Fixing an Image........... 223

The Purpose of Levels Triangles 224

The Output Levels Section... 225

Correcting Images with Curves 226

Curves for People in a Hurry.. 226

Understanding the Curves

Dialog Box............... 227

Getting Information About the

Image.................. 230

Color Corrections with Curves 231

Accessing Levels and Curves

Adjustment Layers....... 231

16 The Importance of Layers and

Masks................. 235

Adjustment Layers Are a Different

Kind of Layer........... 236

Creating Image Layers....... 237

Blending and Opacity

Experiment.............. 238

Harmonizing the Elements

of a Collage............. 239

Scale and Resolution in a

Collage................. 240

Managing Layers.......... 240

Creating an Extended Family. 241

Preventing Color Banding and

Data Loss in Adjustment

Layers................. 242

Making a Composite Image

Step by Step............ 244

Visualize the Image........ 244

Inspect Each Component.... 244

Adjust All the Components.. 245

Select a Component and

Copy It................. 246

Copy the Selection and Paste

It into the Background Image. 247

Flatten the Image When

Finished................ 247

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